


For the Greater Good

by MadameNoire



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Can't believe that's a tag, Does that make sense?, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Nurmengard, bc I was depressed and sleep deprived when I did this, but doesn't happen yet, kinda fluff but not really, no happy endings either, or that was my intention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:22:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21679699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadameNoire/pseuds/MadameNoire
Summary: Albus visits some ghosts before it's too late.
Relationships: Albus Dumbledore/Gellert Grindelwald
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	For the Greater Good

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is a translation from [this work](http://aminoapps.com/p/hzkfhb), which is not posted here. I also translated this around three in the morning on my bed with my cat purring next to me, so if you see any mistakes, you're free to point them out.

**_"Fore the greater good"_ **

Albus stared at the words carved over the entrance of the place that was home of his greatest fear. Words that he himself had writen in a letter lost in time. Words that later were used by the one he was willing to do anything for, the one who used them to justify the most atrocious actions the Magic World had ever seen.

He sighed, letting the cold air fill his lungs to the top, before letting it go while his eyes fell closed. The weight he'd been carrying for years increased while the beating of his heart speeded up.

A cold breeze hit him in the back. He could almost feel that mismatched gaze upon him, those thin lips curling in a smirk at him when they finally met, a white eyebrow rising at the sight of his blackened hand.

* * *

_"Why do you always have to make me wait for you?"_

_The young blonde leaning over the windowsill looked down on him, letting the corner of his lips rise ever so slightly, and a lively shine take over his eyes._

_"But my dear friend, it is you the one who makes me wait! We said you would be here twelve minutes ago."_

_"My sister." he answered without further explanation. His gaze lingered on his shoes before it returned to the window. "Besides, it's always me who has to come to your house. Why don't you come to my? There's the same distance from my house to yours, than from yours to mine."_

_A laugh, so light and fresh as the water of the river, reached Albus's ears and filled his chest, making him smile right away._

_"Why, because it makes me feel important when you come for me." he answered winking at Albus, before desappearing from sight._

_From the outside he could make out the blonde's steps on the wooden stairs, but his laugh still lingered on Albus's mind, along with his shine and his complicated words._

* * *

_'You were important already'_

His eyelids rised once again. His eyes roamed once more over those words that were nothing but a blasphemy to him, and his feeth started to move, one after the other, taking him to where _he_ was.

Once inside, the big door closed heavily behind him, and a weight made its home inside his chest. The same weight that took over him the first time he came in, and that never truly left him despite the years of absence. Because those walls not only held captive the monster he once defeated. It was also home to the one Albus once thought of as the perfect companion, the one that would be by his side to love and share his life with. Those walls held precious feelings and priceless memories created in those magically long months together.

A part of Albus remained there, with _him_.

* * *

_"What's our first stop?"_

_The smile that stole his heart some months ago shone over the soft candlelight. A slender hand rose to acomodate a golden lock behind a pale ear, before letting graceful fingers roam over the map of Europe laid on the floor._

_"France. All the trails I've been following lead to a small village in Lyon as the last place where the wand was seen. It's most probably a dead end, but it's a good place to start."_

_Albus's heartbeat felt as fast as a hummingbird's, so strong he feared his friend could hear it through his chest. The mere idea of them, together and alone in France, made him forget the strawberries he promised to buy for Ariana's diner that night._

* * *

A new sigh left his lips when he found himself in front of the door he himself had been the one responsible to shut. He rose his wand, and as he murmured the enchantments to open the entrance, he could feel the locks of a long sealed trunk shattering one after the other by the second, letting out memories of which only nightmares prevailed. He remembered slow walks by the lake, long chats under the bridge, late nights reading letters that didn't exactly talk about their plans for the greater good...

"I already told the other guard. I'm not in the mood for food today."

Albus felt his geart stop for long seconds. Years of not hearing that voice didn't turn it into a stranger's, despite the tiredness and the deflated tone. He put his wand back up his sleeve, and opened the door, letting the wavering light of the torch illuminate the previously dark cell.

His voice got stuck on his throat when his eyes fell on the figure hunched over the farthest corner, covered by a thin down that let his bare feeth exposed. There was no hair on his head anymore, and his wrinkled hands were curled into tight fists around his sleeves, spasming every few seconds. His face was whithered and darkened, and his eyes haunted eyes looked st him the same way they did the last time they saw each other: with disdain and resignation.

* * *

_"Don't make that face, Gellert. You know that-"_

_"I know your siblings need you, Albus." the blonde interrupted, his scowl turning into an easy smile within seconds. "That's why we're doing this, remember? So we can protect them, and the rest of the magic world. For the greater good."_

_'For them, and for us'_

* * *

"Didn't you hear? I said I'm not eating."

Albus closed his mouth without remembering when he opened it in first place. His hand flew to the door frame in look for something, anything to held on to, while his eyes fought to held his old friend's cold gaze. He blinked quickly to chase away the tears that tried to leave his eyes, and cleared his throat, trying to regain some composure.

"I just- I just came to see if you- If you need anything."

A laugh filled the cold cell. That laugh that once made him dream with the impossible, made him feel warm and safe and content, but now made him feel like knives tearing up his heart. This laugh was different, colder, full of irony and bitterness, nothing like the soft sounds of youth and desire.

"Get out, and tell them I'm not eating tomorrow either."

Albus nodded before he turned around and walked out of the cell, closing the door behind him. He didn't dare to look at him while retreating, knowing perfectly well that if he did, he'd run straight into Gellert's arms, kiss his face and ask him to leave that place with him, to go to France as they planned all those years ago.

He didn't dare to think about him until he disappeared far away from that place, in a cold alley where he waited for the polyjuice potion to wear off, so he'd stop looking like one of the few guards of Nurmengard. He had known he couldn't go in there as himself, not without the risk of losing something more in that cell. He couldn't allow himself that luxury, not with his death so near, and so much still to do.

_He just wanted to see him once more, before he couldn't anymore._

**Author's Note:**

> So, I really love this ship, especially since I started seeing so many amazing art of them with Johnny Depp and Jude Law as models. And as I love them, obvioulsy I need to make them suffer, because that's how I show my love for fictional characters.
> 
> I also have more angst of other characters of HP, so if you guys like this, let me know so I'll start translating them!
> 
> [My Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/madamelilith-red)


End file.
